[Anglican Ink] Lament from London: a dying church in England [Pilling]

Posted by The_Elves

Pageantmaster, a UK-based church commentator well known to Anglican Ink, has penned an evaluation of the situation within the inner councils of the Church of England – and it is not a pretty sight.

Shortly before last week’s meeting of the House of Bishops of the Church of England, he wrote the fix was in:

...those persuaded that we are just having a ‘conversation’ just need to note the way TEC was undermined using the same game plan. Justin under the guise of a sheep has got away with things Rowan never could have.

No that is the plan, and what unless the Evangelical Bishops are prepared to stand up and those others who are concerned, then that is what we are headed for - funded by TEC, organised with materials from US organisations used for the first Continuing Indaba - both in the CofE and the Communion.

It is a high risk policy. Certainly in the Global South the game has been rumbled, and it will break apart the Church of England.

How do I know it will break apart the Church of England? I have been watching it happen this week and reading peoples’ blogs as they explain what they are doing as they start to divide - including many who are in between. I grieve for that. It is heartbreaking.

Hubris, Disobedience, Deception - the Father of Lies is hard at work.

However, God is in charge, and I have seen Him move in power in answer to prayer in ways I could never have imagined, so please join me in prayer. Your will be done, O Lord.

Unlike many in England, I think our friend the Pageantmaster has studied the methodology of the overthrow of TEC, and can see the parallels. Certainly we all pray for him, and for all others in England who are standing for the Faith delivered to the Saints.

I am sure that God will indeed save His Church in England. The question for the English bishops is whether they intend the Church of England to remain part of His Church in England. And whether the CoE intends to remain part of a world wide communion.

But in this moment, it looks very dark, indeed, for the faithful in the mother church of the Anglican Communion.

It *is* heartbreaking - I’m glad that someone from the U.K. paid close enough attention to how things have been done here to recognize the same dog and pony show when it arrives on the other side of the pond. Prayers for the faithful in England, for wisdom and, as important, spines for the bishops - and the Lord’s mercy on us all.

I’m fascinated by the claim that “most Christians” are moving toward acceptance of the gay claims. Which Christians? If there are 2 billion Christians in the world, we are sure that Roman Catholics and Orthodox (Eastern and Oriental) aren’t moving that direction. The vast majority of Anglicans aren’t moving in that direction. Evangelicals, Baptists, and Fundamentalists aren’t headed that way. Outside of the U.S. and Europe, Methodists aren’t. At this point, we are getting close to that 2 billion mark.

It’s my guess that adding the dying western protestant and Anglican groups, individual dissenting Catholics and Orthodox, and odd groups like the “Emergent Churches”, you might get 300 million (I’m being generous). Apparently these are the only real Christians.

Charles,
I believe the reality is that the majority of members of the clubs frequented by bishops and the social strata of laity who get appointed to commissions in England are in favor of moving the church in the direction of supporting the gay agenda.
This is just as the majority of bishops come from parents who were members of those same clubs, plus a few working class ones who were rather able in school, could write well, and were sufficiently accepting of liberal social thinking to get themselves through the same colleges.
The other problem with the HoB (at the diocesan level especially) is that +Michael Nazir Ali and +Tom Wright are no longer in it, and the selection process so skewed against orthodoxy that no one has risen to take their place. I mean, how is it that not one senior bishop has spoken a word in objection to Pilling? So now you will have “facilitated conversations”, led by pro-gay-marriage facilitators, for 3 years, while gay marriages are performed in a half dozen dioceses under the guise of “generous pastoral provision” and SSBs in some form in 20 others, and by the time the conversations are over, there won’t be anything left for Synod to decide.
I actually PRAY (daily) that I am wrong about that last, but I am going to maintain that I am most probably correct until such time as a sitting diocesan bishop in England is willing to get up off his backside and defend the faith, and his, if not CoE’s, communion with the vast majority of the Anglican Communion.

Full Disclosure: I am an American and therefore defer to the British commenters here.

At this point silence has accompanied the Bishops’ reception of the Pilling Report. From that public silence, what ought we to infer? On another thread, Pageantmaster infers that the revisionists’ will proceed, full speed ahead. Is that the correct inference?

Just a reminder that what happened in the U.S. was ultimately about control of property, perquisites, prestige and privilege. Dissenters become troublemakers who must be expelled. Now many of our once-storied shrines are like beautiful picture frames with nothing in them.

Fascinating, too, to see how those who dislike PM’s observations use ad hominem attacks, and don’t bother to debate the substance of his piece. Or, trying to be as charitable as possible, they plead for more “conversation” and deny that there really is a spiritual war being fought.